


Reason, Wisdom, and Nature

by IShouldBeWriting



Category: Die Zauberflöte | The Magic Flute - Mozart/Schikaneder
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Community: purimgifts, Enlightened Absolutism, Gen, Implied Masonic Undertones, Obscurantism, Obtuse reference to Maria Theresa Archduchess of Austria, Retelling and revision, opera - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-03-15 21:10:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3462182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IShouldBeWriting/pseuds/IShouldBeWriting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It took a kidnapping for Pamina to know that Sarastro was not the evil sorcerer and vizier the Queen of the Night portrayed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reason, Wisdom, and Nature

**Author's Note:**

  * For [seekingferret](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekingferret/gifts).



My father had to kidnap me for us to finally know each other.

It was all my mother's fault; she'd been married to my father too young and for alliance. In spite of my current animosity for her, I will admit that my mother is a cunning and - I've discovered - vengeful woman. Upon my grandfather's death, she and her handmaidens staged a coup, overturning the rightful line of succession with intent that she would rule under the guidance of the Holy Fathers. My father, Sarastro, wisely fled under the expectation that my grandfather's people would turn against her in response to the upheaval she'd incited. 

But I digress.

As he tells it, Sarastro's only regret in fleeing both the country and his wife was abandoning me. As he tells it, he doted on me in infancy, carrying me round the castle grounds in spite of how oddly my mother's women reacted to a man with such a strong interest in the rearing of his daughter. Having finally met him, knowing how alike we are in disposition and interests, I am indebted to him for having taken the risk to free me from my captivity. 

Don't get me wrong, for a woman like myself with an inclination toward scholarship and the esoteric, the convent was a reasonably good place to live. Though my chosen course of study caused them no end of discomfort, the Handmaidens kept their silence, assuming that if she had not approved my mother would have removed and burned _those books_ from their library. They were half right; had she known of their existence, she would have. But the books were buried in an unexpected place deep,within the archives. From all appearances I was the first person to have explored that room in decades, possibly centuries. (To my delight, Sarastro's man - his skin dark as shadows - assisted me in liberating the volumes as well as myself from the Father's handmaidens. Now they reside within the safety and immensity of the Great Library where all who hunger may sup from their magnificence.)

Which brings me to my purpose. My objective in penning this volume is twofold: firstly to set the records of history straight regarding the nature of my father and his studies and secondly that hopefully my discoveries and insights as I continue my studies will prove valuable to others someday. To that end, for the enlightenment of future readers I state here unequivocally; the sorcerer Sarastro, the man I am affectionately learning to call my father, is neither evil nor a monster. He is a man, curious, compassionate, and wise. Nothing more, nothing less. Of my mother, the same can no longer be said. 


End file.
